Did chef Joe Gera expose Rand Paul lied about not getting COVID-19 vaccine?

In July 2026, social media users claimed that a chef said he knew Republican Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. — who has denied receiving the COVID-19 vaccine — was vaccinated because he cooked at an event Paul attended in early 2022 that required unmasked attendees to provide a negative COVID-19 test beforehand.

The claim emerged as Paul subpoenaed Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former chief medical adviser to U.S. presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, for questioning before a Senate committee regarding his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The claim that a chef had proof Paul was vaccinated against COVID-19 spread on multiple platforms, including Instagram, X and Facebook (archived). On Facebook, for example, one post’s caption began: “‘You were vaccinated. Multiple times.’ A Pittsburgh chef fired that at Rand Paul this week, in reply to the senator’s post claiming ‘we all knew infection was the best protection.'”

The post was real — a chef named Joe Gera posted it on July 30, 2026 (archived). However, although we confirmed Gera is a chef with online presence going back several years, we were not able to verify his claim. Because of this, we’ve rated the claim a mixture of true and undetermined information.

In response to a post by Paul that read, “Remember: Anthony Fauci was all about ‘following the science,’ until it came to vaccines. He was all about forcing you into compliance, even though we all knew infection was the best protection,” Gera wrote:

You were vaccinated. Multiple times. How do I know? 

Because I cooked an event you attended in early 2022. The venue’s policy was: if you wanted to attend unmasked, you had to be vaccinated (this didn’t stop until April that year at this venue). You also had to RSVP well in advance and provide a negative COVID test before the event. So if you were there, you met those requirements. But by all means, keep bulls***ting.

It’s unclear what event he was referring to, whether Paul attended and the nature of vaccination proof that was purportedly required. We reached out to Gera seeking will update this story if we learn more.

We also contacted Paul, who said, “Because I was infected in February 2020 and developed immunity, I never received a Covid vaccine.” When the COVID-19 pandemic first spread in the U.S. in early 2020, Paul was the first senator known to test positive.

For further reading, we looked into whether Paul was certified as an ophthalmologist by a board he created. We’ve also debunked a photo people claimed showed Paul receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.

Sources